Skylab was launched on May 14, 1973 from the Kennedy Space Centre by a Saturn V launch vehicle. However during launch Skylab suffered major damage, losing a critical meteoroid shield, taking a solar panel with it. With the meteoroid shield gone, the sun shone right into the workshop, as it also acted as a sun shield, rising temperatures to 52oC. it took them 10 extra days to fix the problem.
The first crew was sent up on May 25, 1973. They stayed 28 days aboard the Skylab space station; their first task was to repair the damage. By June 4, 10 days after launch the workshop was fully operational. The conducted several experiments, in the period up until June 22. They circled the earth 404 times in this period.
The second crew stayed for 59 days, performing many experiments, this crew circled the earth 858 times.
The third crew was sent up for 84 days, they completed 1214 earth orbits.
On July 1979 the empty Skylab Space Stations orbit became unstable and the unmanned craft came crashing to earth scattering debris across the Indian Ocean and Western Australia.
The Goal.
The Skylab space station was America's first experimental space station in orbit, it was designed as a pioneer, to find out the effects on humans working and living in weightlessness.
The Crew And Experiments.
Three crews in total were sent up into the Skylab space station, for a total of 171 days and 13 hours. During this period of time over 300 experiments were carried out in space. These included medical and technical on humans adaptability to weightlessness, solar observations and detailed Earth resource experiments.
NASA's Concept of a Space Station.
NASA had studied the concept of a space station for years before Skylab. Some of their ideas included a giant inflatable ring shaped station; however, in the late 1960's, with the invention of the Saturn Rocket the Skylab program started. Skylab was initially called the Apollo Applications Program, Skylab planned to use the left over equipment from Apollo's lunar missions.
